I have been searching past couple of days but I can't come up with an answer and hopefully i can get some insight.

I have a 94 EG hatchback with Koni Str.t shocks paired with an unknown brand lowering springs. The springs are purple in color with about 1.5 inch drop and came off a friends 96 EK hatchback. He doesn't know the brand either because purchased with it already on there.

Well my dilemma is that this suspension set up is too stiff for my ride as it's my daily driver and I frequent trips from FL to North Carolina. After 7 hours drive...i can feel it. My inquiry is...if i want to make my ride more comfortable and a lot softer (closer to oem)...should i change the springs and to what brand? or should i change shocks back to oem shocks? Half of my friends say it's the springs causing the stiffness and half of them saying it's the shocks

I'd like to keep the ride height at 1.5 to 1.8 inch drop. I don't mind losing handling perfomance for a closer oem ride (as close as possible anyways). I'm on a budget so would only like to do one or the other. I know suspension tuning is a science (with spring rates matching shocks) which i don't understand so hope to get some input. Thanks guys.

 

buy springs you know the rates of, eibach sells good springs for around that height. which should ride fine with your oranges.

 

Is there a spring rate i need to stay around? i read somewhere for comfort don't go over 300F and 250R. Also Koni did suggest the pro kits for me but i think they are only a 1.3 inch drop. i guess i better search pics of pro kits on my eg to see how that looks.

 

yeah pro kit's wont drop too much at all, but it'll be just about as comfy as oe springs as they're only slightly stiffer than stock.

 

Shocks - or dampers control a spring's mechanical and kinetic energy; mechanical is the compression stroke and kinetic is the rebound stroke. If the shocks are too weak for the current unknown spring rate the harshness is more than likely coming from the springs. If the shocks are too strong for the springs the harshness is more than likely coming from the shocks.

Mating shocks to springs isn't complicated but it takes some careful thought. most after market shocks like the koni Sports are at their limit when matched to a 400lb/in spring. so a spring rate in the mid 350 range seem appropriate...

Also, a shock that is too strong for a spring will cause your car to exhibit lazy repsonses...and the reverse is true...a spring that over-powers a shock will cause your car to exhibit nervous and somewhat uncontrolled responses.

I agree the thoughts above...Ground Control make some very nice springs but you are well advised to call them and let them tell you what spring to use. They can give you way more information in a real conversation than anyone here can...5 minutes of banter on the phone is worth about 100 replies to your post here.

If I were giving you advice based upon your "comfort" complaint I would say stay under 300lb/in...300 front and 275 rear...or 250 rear.b That is still quite sporting. BUT, you should first determine the rates in the car now so you don't duplicate your problem...that should be your first priority.

 

if you mate the pro kit which is a 1.3 inch drop like you said with some koni's then you can actually go lower, the rears of koni's have 3 perches you can set your spring on, and the front has two you can choose from..

i'm on the upper two in the front, and mid in the rear and i'm pretty low on my coilvers (i still have coils to go on my current setup so i can go wayyy lower)


more koni guru's will tell you exactly how you can do this.. just wait til they chime in.

94patrickgsr or whatever lowered his car on stock ITR springs with koni's and he almost tucked tire all around.. just wait til he reads this thread and he'll show you what all you can do

 

A finer point...if you want more comfort and a slightly lower ride your only choice is a progressive rate spring...the Pro Kit is Progressive rate but you do not get to choose the rates, they are what they are.

 

Yea this is my car with Koni Sport shocks and my stock GS-R springs up front and stock ITR springs in the rear. Koni spring perches on the lowest setting all around.

I think it would be too low in front with the ITR front springs, and it was too high in the rear with the GS-R springs, which is why I went with the GS-R/ITR hybrid combo.

 

Thanks so much for your input guys. This is definitely starting to make a dent on my ignorance on the suspension science. haha.

meb58...thanks for that explanation...your explanation made more sense than the other suspension basic threads that i found. some of the suspension basics got to technical for my knowledge.

ohsnapzafingcu and PatrickGSR94, what are perches? my friend installed my springs for me so i have no idea. I have the STR.T non-adjustable shocks. are perches for the adjustable shocks? btw, i love that GSR...so clean; i love that simple clean look!

 

PatrickGSR 94,

I've often wondered why many folks go after the 99-2000 civic Si when this car has more to offer...my opinion of course. The Si's steering gear is about on par with a Mack truck and cannot be swapped with anything else...not so the GSR as it works great with ITR components. The front looks about 1/2" too low...another opinion...sorry. Nice car...how about some brakes from Fast Brakes? Incredible improvement over those stockers for around $400.00. The only down side is the calipers are not coated and will rust in about one minute! I used this setup successfully on the track with a 99 Si.

Apologies for taking the thread off course!

 

no worries meb58. i'm just appreciative you guys have chimed in on my situation

 

the OP said he's using Koni STR.T shock, which have been said to just be "OE replacement" quality. not Koni Yellow Sports.

i dont think they have the circlip adjustment. i dont know, theres so little feedaback on them in the last 2 years theyve been out.

a softer spring requires less of a drop, or more shock travel. or else youll risk damaging the shock or just run out of shock travel. try Eibach pro kits, its a good drop and enough shock travel. its a known brand and i can vouch they do the proper testing to provide the level of performance they claim. a progressive spring rate in the rear is key to a more comfortable ride. and thats what pro kits offer (so do OEM springs). ive actually found the quality of the ride to be regardless of the front spring rate. it has to do with the center of gravity and moment distances to the front vs rear suspension.

spring rate is one half of the ride quality. a better shock is going to control the movement better, limiting the RATE (acceleration) of movement. thats as best as i can describe the role of the shock vs the spring. perhaps in other words, even with a stiffer spring, a better shock can mellow out the harshness of the ride. if i was looking to improve my ride quality, id get better shocks like tokico illuminas first.

 

Thanks Tyson...yeah one of my friends suggested the shock route also. and you are right...there doesn't seem tobe enough feedback for the STR.T shocks. i tried doing a search on this shocks and didn't find much.

 

btw, they are not like koni sports at all. no circlip. look pretty much like OE.

http://members.chello.pl/d.nowak83/allegro/konip2sm.jpg

 

My bad, STR.T shocks indeed do not have an adjustable spring perch:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/i-got-my-koni-str-t-orange-shocks-2404595/

My car? It is what it is - GS-R stock springs with the perch 25mm (1 inch) down from stock position, which should yield about 1.5" drop at the wheel. My springs may be sagging, could be suspension bushings, but whatever, I think it looks good.

Most of my suspension bushings are shot to hell. I've had the complete HardRace bushing kit sitting in the garage last July, but haven't had the time or money to get them all installed yet.

Brakes stay stock-spec, as this is strictly a daily driver. My wife and I just had our first child last month, so I barely have time for normal maintenance, much less anything else. At this point I'm only keeping the car running and drivable.

 

My comment comes from a pure geometry perspective, so take it with a grain of salt. I used many Mugen hard rubber bushing in my 99 Si...they worked very well...leave the large trailing arm and toe control links bushings stock...these need to move as intended. The toe control links are not well suited to anything realy hard anyway...they will crack. Hard here means poly...yuk! Are those wheel mugen?

Triangle 1020...your ride problems may be that your car is basically using a stock shock with a shorter and heavier spring...depending upon how long these have been paied the shocks may be worn...

 

I just had the shocks installed this past October...so they are still good. Ok...since these are like OE replacement shocks versus a true performance shocks...then would it be possible that using Tein S.techs, which from researching have a spring rate of 235F/140R (which seem to be the lowest even lower then pro kits), would work for a comfortable ride?

also some peeps have posted that the str.t's are supposedly just like the koni yellows but on the softest setting.

 

If you are buying springs why not just go for stock...or research the stock rates and compare to other Honda/Acura applications...like Patrick did. I am sure you can find used spring in good condition...?

140lb/in seems really light...not sure what the stock rate is...bet it's comfortable!

 

its not the first time ive heard that about the str.t vs koni yellow. not sure if lee grimes (koni NA) said that, but if it didnt come directly from him, i would ignore.

eibach pro kits > tein s-techs IMO. be careful of fake ones too.

 

The purple springs could be intrax. there is a thread with all the springrates in here somewhere. My intrax springs were about a 2inch drop i think.

 

Tyson, yeah i saw the fake tein's warning on their site. crazy!

I was also thinking intrax but this drop is only about 1.5 inch drop. they did come off my friends 96 hatchback though. but i'll look around for the spring rate of intrax. thanks for input.

 

How do you know for sure the car is dropped 1.5"? Hell my stock springs on Koni shocks SHOULD be about 1.5" lower than stock, but it sure as hell looks lower than that. But I don't know for sure.

I need to find a stock Integra to park next to and do some ninja measuring lol

 

good point there. I'm only taking my friends word on it because when it was on his car, he measured a stock ride against his. plus my car didn't drop too much so i'm assuming he is correct. i could be wrong though. haha

 

I parked next to one this morning. I got all 4 fingers of my hand in between the tire and front fender, or a "4 finger gap" as some would call it.

Which made my "doesn't look very low" "2 finger gap" drop suddenly look like a decent drop.

Those pics, are obviously much lower than 1.5" below stock. Were the shocks mounted lower in the fork than intended? I didn't bother to transfer the brake line bracket to my Yellows, and can see how easy it could be to unintentionally mount the shocks low without those brackets.

 

Yes, my brake line brackets are all correctly installed and shock forks properly seated. So the drop is all spring perch and any spring saggage.... driver side is a bit lower, I kinda want to swap sides on the front springs and see what happens.

Here's a pic I took a long time ago when I parked next to a stock BG-33P Integra... I think I was on the H&R Sports in this pic but I'm not totally sure. Tires are 195/50-15 so they're a bit smaller which means more fender gap.